Not too much, I guess. After all, I am not a hypocrite, to have said things I did not believed in, just to clinch the job. That's why I am still in the profession. It is just that I have changed my employer, the environment. The target audience is still the same - students.
Some, like my good buddy Wilson's mother, have went on and on to share with me the joys of teaching, on how rewarding a career it would be. I guess it would be one, but was just not too sure if I would stay sane enough to reap the rewards of the seeds I sow. I mean - I will have to wait years - and I emphasise, YEARS - to have an inking of my former students' success in life, for them to grow up and have their own jobs and families...
The first wave of rewards, perhaps, is usually from the parents. Their commendations, their praises, their thanks - the first sign of whether you have taught, or not, to their children. Before you get turned off here, I just want to quantify again that this is not my avenue of self-glorification, of narcissism. No, just a reflection of things in life... Back to the subject at-hand...
My students may remember me telling them, borrowing a phrase, "I am not teaching you how to pass your examinations and tests; I am teaching you how to 'fish', so that you will not starve when you are on your own in future..." I am not sure how many of them understood what I meant when I told them what I said, but I sincerely hope they will 'see the light', sooner rather than later.
I do not think I am that likeable to my students as an English language teacher (they could like my Physical Education lessons, though). Thus, I have not, in my short span of three years as a teacher in school, received many notes of thanks and appreciation. However, I am always happy when parents of my students tell me, in the form of verbal confrontations, text messages, emails or letters, that their children love to be in my class and have been learning a lot from me. Or they could just thank me for my effort I had put in. That is enough for me.
One of my former students' parents did more than that this morning. Mrs Chew, mother of Sherman, called me up the previous night to ask me to meet her as she had something to pass to me. It was, she said, some chocolates / sweets for my children, in appreciation for the time I had spent working with Sherman on my own free will.
You see, I had planned to leave the ministry some time ago and this year, I just thought I wanted to do more for some of my students. I approached two of them - Qishun and Sherman - and asked them if they were interested in doing some additional work in English language with me. They were both my students in my maiden year as a form teacher in 2008, P4 Robin. Why them? Were they THAT poor in the language, you might ask? Were they financially poor that they cannot afford tuition lessons? No, on the contrary, they were my number two and three in the class at the end of that year. I asked them as I thought they are very hardworking and driven, and should benefit with an extra adult looking at their work with them.
Why not other students? Was I not being fair? You see, I did not close off all doors to other students. If any student were to approach me to ask me why I was being unfair and doing extra with only these two, I would have invited them to join us with open arms. I asked the two of them merely because I believed that they would want me to 'do some work' with them. I gave them extra work - on top of those that they have been given in school and at tuition - and they completed the work faithfully almost everytime I asked them to, giving me no excuses for anything that would have thwarted their attempts to complete work I asked them to do.
We had our weekly, two-hour session in an open area of the school while I was still a member of the school I was teaching. From June, we had our sessions in Tiong Bahru Plaza. Thankfully, we were not chased out by the management and staff at the Burger King there. We were not distracted by the people or things around us. The sessions were enjoyable.
I received a text message from Sherman's mother, saying that she wanted to pass me something as a form of their gratitude to me for having 'tutored' their son. I did not ask, neither did I expect to receive anything, so I did not know what to expect. I met them at the front gate of the school this morning and spoke to them. They expressed their thanks for my having helped their son for nothing, and spending my 'personal' time. It left a warm feeling in my heart, knowing that we had done the best we could in our circumstances for Sherman, and I could recognise the unconditional love in Mr and Mrs Chew.
I had not spent time doing extra 'work' with the two boys for the bag of sweets that came from Japan. I had not done them for money (though it would have helped me financially...). It was, perhaps, the joy of teaching, the smile that I hope to see on the faces of the children and their parents come next week, or for something more meaningful they were going to do later in life.
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